164 



CHASUTA. 



nary-sized vaca marina will yield from thirty-five to forty pounds of 

 manteca, which will sell in Tarapoto for three cents the pound, money ; 

 besides ten pieces of salt fish, worth twelve and a half cents each. Fifty 

 cents is the common price of the fish where it is taken. The governor 

 general of the missions told me that two men in his employment at 

 Chorococha, on the Amazon, had taken seven for him in eight days. 

 The flesh, salted or dried, is a good substitute for pork. It is put up in 

 large jars in its own fat, and is called michira. 



Chasuta is an Indian village of twelve hundred inhabitants, situated 

 on a plain elevated about twenty-five feet above the present level of the 

 river. It is frequently covered in the full, and the people take their 

 canoes into their houses and live in them. The diseases, as all along the 

 river, are pleurisy, tarbardillo, and sarna. The small-pox sometimes 

 makes its appearance, but does little damage. It is a very healthy place, 

 and few die. 



The Indians of Chasuta are a gentle, quiet race ; very docile, and very 

 obedient to their priest, always saluting him by kneeling and kissing his 

 hand. They are tolerably good boatmen, but excel as hunters. Like 

 all the Indians, they are much addicted to drink. I have noticed that 

 the Indians of this country are reluctant to shed blood, and seem to have 

 a horror of its sight. I have known them to turn away to avoid killing 

 a chicken, when it was presented to one for that purpose. The Indian 

 whom Ijurra struck did not complain of the pain of the blow, but, 

 bitterly and repeatedly, that "his blood had been shed." They eat 

 musquitoes that they catch on their bodies, with the idea of restoring 

 the blood Avhich the insect has abstracted. 



The padre told me that the fee for a marriage was four pounds of 

 wax, which was the perquisite of the sacristan ; for a burial, two, which 

 went to the sexton ; and that he was regaled with a fowl for a christen- 

 ing. He complained of the want of salary, or fees; and said that it was 

 impossible for a clergyman to live unless he engaged in trade. Every 

 year the governor appoints twelve men to serve him. The commission 

 runs, "For the service of our holy mother church:" but it means the 

 curate. It is an office of distinction, and the Indians crave it. They are 

 called Fiscales. They work the padre's chacra and trapiche ; fish for 

 him ; hunt for him ; (the fishermen and hunters are called mitayos ; 

 this is a remnant of an oppressive old Spanish law called mita, by which 

 certain services, particularly in the mines, were exacted of the Indians ;) 

 do his washing ; wait upon his table ; and carry on for him his traffic 

 on the river, by which he gains his salt fish and the means to buy 

 crockery for his table. 



